This topic came from the other one asking why we are not in space with designs like the DY-100 class. That topic has gone off somehwere else and is fairly old now.
If we go by the last 200 years you will find a huge jump in technology than 2,000 years ago. If you place someone from the early 1800's on a ship from the US Civil War, he wouldbe out of place. Because of alot of technological advancements. Same goes for placinf a Civil War era person on a World War 1 ship.
I go by the Navy because for one, the Navy terms are used on Trek. Even now, its to a point where there is no seriously need for a surface ship.
Now that we have computers, it has been perdicted that computers will double their power every 18 months. I remember when I was 10-12 300 MB of memory is alot and 4 MB of ram was like having 8 GB ram now. Imagine that computer power in 2061-2063, when we are 'supposed to have warp drive'. Hell future wars might not even be between nations but our creations.
Trek in the terms of computer power, is not far away. With this type of power, humans can go in space with the use of computers doing the calculations needed.
Thoughts?
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Well, when you start getting computers to control the operations of a ship you get into problems like in 2001 when the computer is given conflicting orders and trys to make sense of things and ends up killing people.
Posted by Grokca (Member # 722) on :
Well we are sending computers to space now it is just too expensive to send people. A lot of the engineering for extended manned missions has been done but there is no financial backing for the projects. The drives are being tested (DS1,2) and materials testing is being done all the time. The sad truth is there is no political will to engage in these projects, and without the will there will be no money and no deep space missions.
Posted by Matrix (Member # 376) on :
But imagine the use of a computer program that could do calculations in an instant. Imagine what that type of program would be like in the hands of Einstein-type person.
It wouldn't matter if its too expensive now, ($20 per kg) could bring that down to 2 cents per gram if the propulsion system is effiecient enough. The propulsion system we have is extremely inefficient which relies on a focused explosion to propel it upwards. Tat consumes massive amounts of fuel and energy. Which in turn makes the ship unnessarily too large.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Chris: I'm pretty sure that only happens w/ neurotic AIs. If you give a computer conflicting instructions, it will probably just carry out whichever it's given last. Or it'll just crash.
Posted by Grokca (Member # 722) on :
quote:Or it'll just crash.
I just got scared thinking, WINDOWS TO THE STARS
Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :
Windows Galactic Edition with InterGalactic Explore 6.0
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
The patch to fix that Human Elimination Protocol glitch will be available on the Microsoft site some time in late Q3.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
quote:Originally posted by Matrix: But imagine the use of a computer program that could do calculations in an instant.
Like, uh, one of those thigns...what're they called again? Damn.
Oh, yeah. A pocket calculator.
Posted by Matrix (Member # 376) on :
Ok, show me a pocket calculator that will do the formula for FTL propulsion.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Show me a duck that explodes when it eats French money, then reassembles itself and quacks to the tune of Bach's "tocatta and fugue in D minor".
I'm not sure I understand your point.
[ April 05, 2002, 09:24: Message edited by: TSN ]
Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on :
my math teacher in high school pointed out to us that the TI pocket calculators we were required to buy for the course had computing power equal to the computers that were aboard the Apollo missions for their computations.
Oh, and by the way...
[ April 05, 2002, 10:16: Message edited by: CaptainMike ]
Posted by OnToMars (Member # 621) on :
My cats' breath smells like cat food.
Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on :
Posted by Matrix (Member # 376) on :
Shik answered my question about finding a computer that can do calculations by saying "pocket calculator" right? Fine those $1 calculators that you can buy in a dollar store can help you with basic addition, subtraction, division, and mulitiplication problems. The more advanced ones that schools usually have, the Texas Instruments tpye, can do a bit more. Then the graphing calculator can do everything up to advanced calculus.
However has anyone ever tried to develop anything advanced one one of those things, such as a computer a thousand times more efficient than the ones we have now, that could fit in a space of a average watch? No? That's what I mean, its to the point where we are relying on the computer to start doing our math and now later I'll bet they are the ones you will design a FTL drive, not us. We will be sitting in the sidelines watching.
If you call that a pocket calculator, fine. I call that the future or computers.
Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on :
i carried it to school in my pocket. and any calculator can do the calculations.. the only problem is that things like that need to be programmed to do things sequentially, by humans. I doubt that any computer in the next 100 years will actually think on its own. Computers need humans to unplug them when they are stupid, to use them to make images depicting how cats breath smells like cat food, et cetera. Maybe a computer could design a FTL drive.. but it would need you to tell it to start doing so.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Matrix: The reason he called it a pocket calculator is because you said "a computer program that could do calculations in an instant". And a pocket calculator does that. You didn't say what kind of calculations.
And of course we'll be "sitting on the sidelines watching". That's the reason we have computers. Do you realize how complicated the calculations that are done these days are? If all the scientists had to work them out by hand, we'd never get anywhere (not to mention we'd completely deforest the planet to get all the pencils and paper they'd need. We have computers so we can feed the information into them, and then we can sit back and wait for them to give us the result, in a much much much shorter time than it would take, otherwise.
Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :
Computers would still need human input- to design the programs that enable them to do FTL calculations etc. Unless we can come up with something along the lines of Data humans will always be a vital part of a computers operation. Not to mention how often the damn things go wrong and need- you guessed it- humans to fix 'em.
